Sunday, January 23, 2011

Thrifting Saves the Week: The T.G.I.F. Accidental Outfit

I know I often go off on how thrifting is the best thing in the world, how it makes me feel like a complete person, and how it has the potential to unite the world and dissipate all of its problems, but this week I had not one, but TWO instances where thrifting totally prevented what was a rather shitty week from turning into the worse week of my life.

What a week it was—we had negative temps all week; on Sunday, my phone was ran over by a car; on Wednesday, I almost had to get my car towed when I got it stuck in a stranger's driveway, only to have my car die the next day; that same day, I failed to gain an excellent career opportunity and lost my peace pin that the nice old man at Northern Sun gave me; and on Friday, I misread the schedule for the library and wasn't able to pick up my holds or return my books. All major bummers.

Despite all of these silly misfortunes, life continues on, in large part because of thrifting. I was able to get my car out of the driveway through the help of my wonderful friend Lisa, two strangers and a thrifted Ouija board from the Dig'n'Save in Madison that had been sitting in my trunk for two years (R.I.P. Ouija board). And then, right after realizing that the library was closed, I put on a great thrifted outfit that I wouldn't have done on purpose. It wasn't until I looked in the mirror that I realized that somehow, mauve, navy, teal, magenta, yellow green and off white TOTALLY go together!

I say this outfit was accidental because it was—instead of staring blankly at my closet for twenty minutes before grabbing the same hoodie and pair of warm pants as I normally do this time of year, I threw on the sweater (purchased at the Halloween Bootique, previously featured here) as I was rushing out the door for a vet appointment we were late for. Later, I grabbed the leggings (from the Target basement at the Salvation Army) to wear under my sweatpants to walk the dogs. I always put on a second layer to walk them during the cold months, but I usually stick to other leggings, all of which were in the wash. As I was in the middle of doing laundry, I could only find the matches for a pair of short ankle socks—hardly the sort of sockwear you don during negative temps. To bridge the gap between the sock and the leggings, I threw on the legwarmers, which I thrifted somewhere in Green Bay. And VOILA!—an amazing, accidental outfit!

Because it made me feel so good to have stumbled upon this great color combination, so much so that it brought a glimmer of hope to my otherwise totally crap week, I wanted to share it with you. Because as they say, if you look good, you feel good!

4 comments:

i think your accidental outfit is like doing public service because it made my day better when i saw you in it, and it probably affected even the chi of perfect strangers! also, does that mean you used the ouija board as a shovel?